Polio epidemic fears as Ukraine’s vaccine stockpiles dry up

Ukraine may face epidemics of preventable diseases like polio due to a government failure to stockpile vaccines and organize inoculation, the UN’s health body warned. The shortage is aggravated by devaluation and a planned ban on Russian drugs.

The healthcare system of
Ukraine was not in good shape to start with, and the political
crisis and the subsequent civil war further damaged it, the World
Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday.

Now with the government failing to procure necessary vaccines,
Ukraine may experience outbreaks of diseases usually associated
with undeveloped African and Asian counties.

"Ukraine has no vaccines... They don't have any vaccines in
their storage," Dr. Dorit Nitzan, who heads the WHO's
country office in Ukraine, told reporters in Geneva.

She added that even now many hospitals in Ukraine have no vaccine
stockpiles.

“If you go to some leading medical centers in Kiev you may
find some, but there are no stockpiles to meet the demand of the
entire healthcare system,” she said, adding that in a month
there may be no vaccines left whatsoever.

Ukraine needs drugs for measles, tetanus, mumps and diphtheria.
But of particular concern for WHO is the potential outbreak of
poliomyelitis, a debilitating viral infection mostly hitting
young children that "usually comes in countries in
turmoil," Nitzan said.

Less than half of Ukrainian children had been vaccinated for
polio before the violence in the country escalated in April, and
WHO fears that a polio epidemic may start for the first time in
three decades, she added.

An intervention by foreign nations and international
organizations would be required to stop such an outbreak would be
needed the official said. Nitzan reiterated the WHO’s plea to
international donors to fund the organization’s operations in
Ukraine. Back in mid-August it had appealed for extra $14
million, but has so far received just $40,000, Nitzan said.

Ukraine’s healthcare perils are aggravated by the economic
hardships the indebted country is experiencing. Health Minister
Oleg Musy said his budget has only around $190 million available
for procurement of necessary drugs – enough to purchase about 30
percent of what is needed.

Drug prices have skyrocketed as well due to the rapid devaluation
of the national currency, the hryvnia, the hike in demand from
unsecure cash-dumping buyers and, according to some officials,
overprizing by producers.

On top of that the Ukrainian government announced its plan to ban
import of all by 20 drugs produced in Russia as soon as October.
The move is meant to punish Moscow for what Kiev calls a Russian
military intervention in eastern Ukraine.

Last year Ukraine imported $74 million worth of drugs from
Russia. While officials say the imports can be easily substituted
by those from other countries, the ban does not help with
building consumer confidence.

Ukraine drifted into turmoil in November 2013, when the decision
to postpone the signing of a free trade deal with the EU
triggered mass anti-government protests in Kiev. The protest
escalated into rioting and an armed coup that brought the leaders
of the protest to power.

Following the coup some of the people living in eastern Ukraine
protested against what they saw as increasingly anti-Russian
policies of the new authorities. In April, the opposition took
arms and organized local militias, to which Kiev responded with a
full-scale military campaign. The shelling of rebel-held cities
by the Ukrainian army and battles in eastern Ukraine claimed at
least 2,700 lives, according to a UN tally.

The military crackdown took its toll on healthcare infrastructure
in eastern Ukraine, where 32 hospitals are no longer fully
functional, according to Nitzan, including 17 that have been
damaged by shelling. Up to 70 percent of healthcare staff has
fled eastern Ukraine, along with some 500,000 people who
abandoned their homes due to the violence.

A shaky truce was negotiated by representatives of Ukraine, the
militias, Russia and the Operation for Security and Cooperation
in Europe (OSCE) last week, but there are concerns that it may
not hold up.